Since installing X11 on the iMac was necessary to get the GIMP running on it, it seemed like a useful science experiment to go ahead and see about running X11 for remote logins to the former Windows machine in the closet.

For some reason /usr/X11R6/bin/X -query 192.168.15.2 didn’t work so good, but /usr/X11R6/bin/X -broadcast worked great. I got a full-screen X session almost instantaneously, with both my primary 17″ iMac and 19″ secondary displays just working.

“Now what,” right?

I dunno. I’ve been wanting an easily-to-admin file server and Web testbed, which I’ve now got. And I guess I’ve got a spare machine I can keep maintained with little hassle in case of some dire eventuality.

SuperDoubleUpdate: If I’d bothered to make sure DHCP was turned off on that Ubuntu box (hence assigning the address I’d meant to assign it), I’d have an easier time finding it without the –broadcast flag. Duh.